


young but not for long

by ohmcgee



Series: ohmcgee's mallverse [34]
Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Retail, Coming Out, Gen, mallverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2016-08-23
Packaged: 2018-08-10 12:56:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7845961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmcgee/pseuds/ohmcgee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I thought you would be reasonable."</p>
            </blockquote>





	young but not for long

“Damian?” Dick says when he opens the door and sees the kid standing there, hair plastered to the side of his face from the sudden rainstorm they just had, backpack slung over one shoulder. Dick just stopped by his place to pick up a few dvd’s -- he managed to get M hooked on Downton Abbey -- on his way over to M’s place for the night, but he opens the door to let Damian in. “You’re kind of wet.”

Damian gives him the same kind of _no shit_ look Dick’s seen Bruce give _him_ a few times by now and rolls his eyes, then drops his backpack, which is also soaking wet, in the kitchen. 

“Is everything okay?” Dick asks, squinting at him. “Was Jay supposed to pick you up?”

“No,” Damian says. He sits in one of the old chairs at the tiny table Tim and Roy haven’t managed to demolish and doesn’t offer anything else. 

“Okay,” Dick says. “Uh. Be right back.”

He leaves Damian in the kitchen and disappears into his mostly barren closet, then rummages around in his drawers and finally comes out with a shirt and a pair of sweatpants that will probably fit Damian, at least until he can wring the water out of his old ones. 

“Here,” he says, setting the clothes on the table in front of Damian. “If you get sick Jay’ll wring my neck.”

Damian snorts at that at least and grabs the clothes off the table. “Thank you,” he says quietly before disappearing into the bathroom, coming out a few moments later looking a bit less soggy, but still pretty miserable.

“So,” Dick says. He made them both some Swiss Miss (with extra chocolate syrup) while Damian was changing, but Damian just stares at it when Dick sets it on the table in front of him. 

“I don’t eat chocolate,” he says and Dick’s eyes nearly fall out of his head. 

“You don’t --- _chocolate_?” He asks, bewildered. “But it’s cocoa! What kind of kid doesn’t like _chocolate_?”

Clearly that was the wrong thing to say because as soon as Dick gets the words out of his mouth Damian gets this _awful_ look on his face like Dick just ran over a whole basket of puppies and his eyes get kind of glassy like he’s about to cry or something and Dick is about six seconds from pulling his phone out to emergency dial Jason when Damian blinks his eyes and looks up at him and says, “How did you know that you were...gay?”

Because doing absolutely the wrong thing is like his superpower or something, Dick laughs. Because _really._ Damian’s expression goes straight from nervous/scared directly into violently angry in about three point two seconds. Dick still remembers how Jason was right after he hit puberty, all fuming ball of rage one minute, clingy crying mess the next. Dick does a silent little prayer that _he’s_ not the stepmom of the group and tries to fix his mess.

“No,” he says quickly. “I wasn’t -- I wasn’t laughing at you, I swear. Oh man, Damian. Why are you asking _me_? I mean. I don’t know if you know this, but I kind of just figured this out myself?”

“I know,” Damian says, fidgeting. “But how did you? Figure it out, I mean.”

“Oh,” Dick says, scratches a phantom itch behind his ear. “Well. Um. I mean. Christ, we should call --”

“No,” Damian says sharply. “I don’t. I’d rather just talk to you. If that’s okay.”

“Okay,” Dick says. Doesn’t add the _but why? _he’s thinking in his head, just takes the cup of cocoa he made for Damian and hops up on the edge of the bar. “So. I’m guessing you’re having some...feelings?”__

__Damian scowls at him._ _

__“Sorry,” Dick says. He takes a sip of cocoa and burns the ever-loving shit out of his tongue and spends the next five minutes swearing like a very articulate sailor until Damian huffs._ _

__“All the people in my grade are doing disgusting things like kissing and holding hands and _going out_ ,” he spits out, nose scrunching up in disgust. _ _

__“Okay,” Dick says. He tries to remember how old Damian is, finally remembers his birthday party last month, the one where Jay sent them out little invitations shaped like ninja stars. “I mean, you’re only thirteen. If you don’t --”_ _

__“And this complete _idiot_ , Jonathan Kent, keeps _talking_ to me. Even when I’m reading in the hallway on my lunch break he will sit beside me and ask me what I’m doing when I’m clearly reading!”_ _

__Dick tries not to smile. “Yep. He sounds pretty dumb.”_ _

__“Well,” Damian says, almost defensively. “He isn’t. He gets good grades in almost all of his classes.”_ _

__“Oh yeah?” Dick says, taking another sip of cocoa._ _

__“Yes,” Damian says. “Except for French. He asked me to help him because he said it was too hard and he didn’t understand, but I’m not entirely sure he wasn’t being honest about that because when I went over to his house after school to help him he didn’t want to study at all. He just wanted to play video games and talk and listen to music together.”_ _

__“Together?” Dick raises one of his eyebrows, then slurps down the rest of his cocoa._ _

__Damian nods, the apples of his cheeks going slightly pink. “He had a song on his iPod he wanted me to hear, so he put one earbud in his ear and I put one in mine and…”_ _

__Damian looks down at the table. “Kissing is weird,” he mumbles._ _

__“Very,” Dick says, grinning. “You want to do it again, don’t you?”_ _

__This time it’s Damian’s entire face that goes pink. Dick hops down from the counter and ruffles up Damian’s hair even though he knows there’s a high chance he’ll pull his hand back with the fingers bitten off._ _

__“So,” Dick says, turning one of the kitchen chairs around backwards and sitting it in across from Damian. “Maybe you’re gay. Maybe you’re bisexual. Maybe you just have a thing for this Jonathan dude. Tim told me what that was called, but I forgot. You know, you should totally be talking about this with him, by the way. He --”_ _

__“Hates me,” Damian says and Dick laughs._ _

__“Dude, you spilled grape juice all over his Prada bag,” He says. “It’s gonna take some time.”_ _

__Damian crosses his arms over his chest and pouts._ _

__“Anyway,” Dick says. “Yeah, you might be gay. What’s the big deal? I mean, your Dad obviously isn’t going to have a problem with it and Jay loves you, man. You know that, right? I mean what else --”_ _

__Damian looks up at him and gives him that same _how stupid are you_ look from before and it takes a minute, but when it finally clicks into place Dick feels this wave of protectiveness that Jay must feel like, all the _time._ _ _

__“No,” Dick says firmly. “ _No. _I know she -- I know she’s your mom and everything, Damian, but -- no, okay? There’s nothing wrong with -- if she says _anything_ to you, if she even --”___ _

____“Dear lord,” Damian sighs a put-upon sigh. “This is why I didn’t go to Jason. I thought you’d be more reasonable.”_ _ _ _

____“Oh, there was your first mistake,” Dick grins and hops out of his chair, grabbing his phone off the counter. “I’m texting everyone right now to tell them about your new _boyfriend_.”_ _ _ _

____“You wouldn’t,” Damian says, staring Dick down as Dick starts tapping at his phone._ _ _ _

____“Ooh!” Dick says. “We can take you boys on your first date! Can I call him Johnny?”_ _ _ _

____He barely gets half a text out to Jason before Damian tackles him to the ground. Whatever, it’s not like it’s his first concussion._ _ _ _


End file.
